The MoEDAL experiment at Point 8 of the LHC ring is the seventh and newest LHC experiment. It is dedicated to the search for highly ionizing particle avatars of physics beyond the Standard Model, extending significantly the discovery horizon of the L
HC. A MoEDAL discovery would have revolutionary implications for our fundamental understanding of the Microcosm. MoEDAL is an unconventional and largely passive LHC detector comprised of the largest array of Nuclear Track Detector stacks ever deployed at an accelerator, surrounding the intersection region at Point 8 on the LHC ring. Another novel feature is the use of paramagnetic trapping volumes to capture both electrically and magnetically charged highly-ionizing particles predicted in new physics scenarios. It includes an array of TimePix pixel devices for monitoring highly-ionizing particle backgrounds. The main passive elements of the MoEDAL detector do not require a trigger system, electronic readout, or online computerized data acquisition. The aim of this paper is to give an overview of the MoEDAL physics reach, which is largely complementary to the programs of the large multi-purpose LHC detectors ATLAS and CMS.
We study Borromean 2n-halo nuclei using effective field theory. We compute the universal scaling function that relates the mean-square matter radius of the 2n halo to dimensionless ratios of two- and three-body energies. We use the experimental value
of the rms matter radius of 22C measured by Tanaka et al. to put constraints on its 2n separation energy and the 20C-n virtual energy. We also explore the consequences of these constraints for the existence of excited Efimov states in this nucleus. We find that, for 22C to have an rms matter radius within 1-sigma of the experimental value, the two-neutron separation energy of 22C needs to be below 100 keV. Consequently, this three-body halo system can have an excited Efimov state only if the 20C-n system has a resonance within 1 keV of the scattering threshold.
